Well, made it alive,but man. The following from the exotic Holiday Inn Express, in beautiful downtown Monroe, NC. Hit storms right out my door, which got worser and worser, to the point I started thinking riding wasn't such a good idea. Bow wave type thunderstorms in se Iowa, following a truck with his flashers on (all the cages had pulled off the road). 60 mph side winds after that, and the ******* storm just kept tracking me. Would stop for a smoke, or gas, dry but windy, 5 minutes into the stop, wham, it would hit me again. Ad nauseum. Finally, around Peoria, it let up, and I could finally remove the rain gear. Frank soldiered on magnificantly, never skipping a beat. Was listening to the 60's channel on XM, and on came "Raindrops" right in the middle of the ****, ya gotta love the irony. Day 2 was perfect out of Indy, no wind, clear to partly cloudy, realized I coulda made a IBA initial out of this trip, even with the weather, when I saw I had done almost 700 miles in 12 hours through the ****. Charlotte is hopping, what with the fans here for the Coke 600, lotta action (and ohhhhh, the wimmins!!!!), drag raced a few exotic cages, Frank 2, cagers nada, teach their inbred ***** to take on a mans machine (or me, which ever comes along first). Anyway, daughter is happy, looking like a million bucks (I gotta post a pic, you won't believe we're related), weather perfect, having a good time, and will be seeing the Grump on schedule Memorial day sometime. Signing off from Earnhardtville, this reporter is [SIZE=14pt]GONE!!![/SIZE]
